**5.2 Inclusive mathematics**

We recognize that math education has an unjust history routed in institutional systems of oppression that have led to differences in learning opportunities and outcomes based on race, class, culture, language, and gender. Historically, mathematics, and particularly algebra, has been used as a gatekeeper that determines who is qualified for higher education and who is not [90]. Many adults hold the belief that some people are math people and other people are not. One of the ways we try to disrupt this conception is by doing open-ended mathematics together. For example, we often start a session by noticing the math we see in a photograph or a picture book. In this illustration (**Figure 4**), people often notice things like: two forks, two cups, six groups of three blueberries on toothpicks, the clock shows 6 o'clock, one red train car and three blue train cars, and many more mathematical ideas. By looking in picture books for mathematics, participants gain practice in noticing the math all around them and seeing how they are using math every day.
